News: 2022

Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), in partnership with the University of Chicago MRSEC, was recently awarded a PREM seed by the National Science Foundation. This award will enable XULA to increase recruitment, retention, and degree attainment and at the same time support excellent research and education at both instituions.

Continuum mechanics reveal collective robotic mechanisms including emergent locomotion.  The interplay between inertial rolling and internal shape chang allows a hexagon to roll autonomously uphill by virtue of its own deformation.

Random twists between layers of crystalline sheets block heat going through the layers, but still maintain good heat flow along the sheets. Researchers measure an astonishing factor of 900 in the difference in heat flow.

Trained binding interactions can assemble multiple distinct structures from a soup of molecules through distinct nucleation pathways.